First, we'll address the first problem...The legal drinking age in the United States is 21, which means if you're 21 minus one day, you can't drink legally. And to make it worse, EVERYONE cards. I'm just going to throw out there that I'm above the age of 18, so I'm legally an adult. I take care of my own business, I have the responsibility of making my own money to support myself (some people are already completely independent of their parents by my age,) and I'm allowed to go to war and die for my country. If I'm allowed all these other responsibilities, why do I not reap the equivalent rewards? If I am legally an adult, then why does the government not trust me to keep myself under control with my alcohol? My mom, for instance, was 18 by the time she was married and had a child. But she couldn't have even a sip of alcohol. ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!?! At least as of right now, I'm a month and a half away from turning 21, and I can't even have a beer with dinner. What's wrong with this picture? Government control, that's what! Another thing. I'm just using England as an example, but there, the legal age is 18, but everyone is usually allowed alcohol no matter the age, especially when they're with their families and have their parents' permission. So alcohol is like tea to them. They don't run around getting drunk and causing trouble all the time, because they are used to being able to drink whenever they want. Here in America, we have turned drinking alcohol into a deviant act, and in England, it's never been a deviant act, so teenagers there (for the most part) don't feel the need to use alcohol to look or act cool. My cousins, for instance, live in London. (Some of my family is from there.) And when I visited them the summer before last, I asked them how it is to be able to drink whenever they want. By the way, their ages were 16 and 18 at the time. Including the underaged one, they both said that there wasn't anything special about drinking, because they are so used to it and can do it whenever they want. So they don't drink all that much and certainly don't party like Americans do. Isn't the deviant act of drinking alcohol and acting like a fool while under the influence exactly what we're trying to get rid of in society by forbidding people under the age of 21 to drink alcohol? Well, if we choose a law like the drinking law in England, then problem solved.
And if we're going to be honest here, teens still drink. They find ways to get ahold of alcohol. It's just a little more difficult, that's all. So the whole point of having a high age limit is in vain. It just upsets people and makes things more difficult. Oh, and it allows government more control over its citizens. Did I mention that?
Now there's another problem. We've already made the age limit 21, so now it would be really hard to move it to 18, because in the beginning, teens would go crazy over the drinking age change and wind up drinking themselves to death. For awhile, until everyone got used to it, it would be giant alcoholic chaos. So now it would be really hard to change the limit, and I don't blame the government for not wanting to try it. So I guess this is not a note about what should change, but what should have never been.
Now I'm going to jump to the other problem I addressed in my opening paragraph. We can't buy alcohol on Sundays! Can I just say that, when I lived in South America, I had tons of friends there from all over the world. A bunch of us were hanging out one day, and I said something about it being against the law to buy alcohol on Sundays in America, and they all thought I was crazy. I think it made them hate America just a tiny bit more than they already did. They just couldn't believe it. And let me explain why. First off, it's just a dumb law, period. Second off, we're not allowed to buy alcohol on Sundays because of, none other than, Christianity. That's where the law stems from. And I do believe we have a little thing called "Separation of Church and State," which in itself, bans passing laws based on any particular religion. It's why gay people should be allowed to get married (because the only reason some people think it's wrong is because of Christianity, which isn't admissable, according to "Separation of Church and State.") And it's the reason why we should be allowed to buy alcohol on Sundays. Not everyone in this country is a Christian. Even though a lot of Americans are, we are a melting pot of different cultures and religions, and we need to respect them all. This is besides the fact that alcohol isn't bad according to the Christian religion...Jesus drank wine in the Bible. So, like I said before, this law is just plain stupid.
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